Yarn Addiction Thursday: BLANKEY!

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When does stash busting become stash stuffing? When you decide to make a blanket from stash and you realize some yarn is just not quite the right color. I decided to make a blanket from an old project that wasn’t working for me.

I had an i-cord scarf that I started last winter. After finishing the dot scarf and the beads and pendant scarf, I no longer had the mental energy to join up all the i-cords I’d made.
LEARNING POINT: I could make i-cord all day with the little i-cord machine. Doing something with the i-cord is much more tiring.

So I had bunches of strings in a basket that just sat there. And how many scarves do I need anyway? I thought I’d unravel the i-cord and make a granny square blanket. Nothing too ambitious. Just a lap blanket. After starting I realized I didn’t have enough stash to do a whole blanket, but I had enough to do a nice border with a larger middle panel.
LEARNING POINT:
Stash projects require a lot of fiddling and problem solving.

Once I’d made as many granny squares as I could, I laid them out to create a border. And then yes, the problem solving began.

Challenges

1. What granny square motif?
A: I have a Japanese crochet book. I used one of the motif patterns. I liked the motif but not the project.

2. What kind of stitch for the middle panel?
A: I looked at a stitch bible and chose a double crochet v-stitch that stacked on top rather than had the next row in the gap.

3. How to join the granny squares.
A: I used a chaining method. I didn’t think it would be strong enough but it was ok. I went around each panel with dc to increase the size of the border and my blanket.

4. How many stitches across for the centre panel?
A: This required a lot of do-overs. Just counting the number of stitches in the border didn’t work. It made the middle panel too large. I ended up counting the stitches in 10 cm and then calculating for my length.

5. If I double crochet around the border instead of the blanket, how can I get the corners right?
A: I realize I did this backwards. But I solved it by doing a DC border around the corner squares and that made all the panels match up
LEARNING POINT:
DO THE BORDERS AFTER THE MIDDLE PANEL. WORK FROM INSIDE OUT NOT OUTSIDE IN.

6. How long to make the panel?
A: Same problem. The sides matched up better. Two border stitches per dc on the side. But I thought I was done several times and I wasn’t.
A: I sewed up most of the border panel before finishing the final rows of the centre panel. Once I only had two stitches left of the border panel to attach I knew I was on the final row of the centre.

7. How to join the borders and the centre panel?

zipper stitch joining dc and sc rows.

A: I found this stitch called the zipper stitch that worked to join the pieces together without creating a ridge. It took me a while to figure out how to do it. For some reason, it took me forever to realize I was joining the two closest loops that on the “back” of the work. LookatWhatImade did a great tutorial. The problem was all on my end.

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So did I win the stash-busting war? I have new 2 balls left over from the blanket project but  I used up half of that old scarf project. My original plan was to use more of the wool from the scarf project but the original raspberry was more orange-tinted than I liked. I’m happy to find a raspberry I liked better. And I love the blanket. I’m calling it a win.

Doubty Dragon: With or Without Wings?

This is my newest plushy creation, Doubty Dragon. His real name is Doubtful Dragon, both because when i started out to make this, I doubted it would look like anything, and because I was using crochet for stress management when thinking about some problems. My husband started calling him Doubty and it stuck. This was my second crochet project so I hadn’t got the crochet technique down yet. When i started, i didn’t have any pattern, just freeform crochet with no purpose. Gradually the idea of a dragon emerged while doing the main body– a dragon or a blue lightbulb. I started in November but Doubty languished for a while at the sewing up stage.

The texture seems odd but I find it interesting despite the error in technique. I ended up doing the spine and the whites of the eyes a couple of times because I didn’t get an effect I liked. It was really hard for me to get the triangle string for a spine. I never found a pattern for it so had to make it up. More experienced crochet people probably find it easy, but it was really challenging for me. I didn’t realize until I sewed the spine on that I should have starched and ironed it first.

The only sticking point for me now is if I should put wings on or not. I’m not a fan of these wings. They seem too small and the shape is blah. I used a leaf pattern. Rather ironic considering his name.

So should I leave the wings off, add them, or try to design new wings?